Follow by Email

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

FOODIE SPECIAL.... Dining In Dubai

Dining decisions are tough
in Dubai. It may be a tiny emirate on a spit of land spiking out into the
Persian Gulf, but its eating out options can leave you as woozy as views from
the vertiginous Burj Al Arab. This way for the world's highest restaurant (At.Mos
phere). This way for an underwater eatery (Al Mahara). `Mediterrasian'? Head to
Zuma where chefs will wow you with flaw less meals amalgamating the two
cuisines.

Dubai's foodscape sizzles
with chic res taurants, quirky cafes, happening bars, lounges and hotels in
instagrammable lo cations. All vie to create an ideal dining experience for
punters. Yet you can also dig into pocket-friendly and tasty plates of curry,
rice, or noodles at under $5. With over 200 nationalities calling Dubai home,
the emirate has got nearly every craving and budget -covered.

Though modern Dubai is
frequently panned as a self-indulgent panegyric to consumerism, there's just as
much fun to be had in the unalloyed pleasures of “the Orient“. Take a food
trail in Deira for a taste of Middle-eastern exotica. This Chandni Chowk-esque
location offers bona fide Emirati, Palestinian, Iraqi, Irani, Turkish and
Lebanese food experiences in an authentic setting. In Deira's cavernous
kitchens, I also meet humble and talented chefs dishing out delicious sesame-en
crusted falafels, gooey knafeh (cheese des sert), soft pita, muskahan (Lebanese
pie) and other irresistible goodies. Breakfast binges `Healthy' breakfasts are
quite the thing in Dubai these days with a crop of expat chefs putting a creative
spin on healthy produce for the day's most important meal. One such meal took
me to The Farm at Al Barari, on Dubai's outskirts, to Nad Al Sheba, making me
wonder if I was indeed in the desert emirate.

Surrounded by lush
botanical gardens and lakes, The Farm is a contemporary, glass-walled space
with dappled sunlight.Wooden decks jut out over a small lake allowing patrons
to dine at tables amongst an array of colourful plants, sink into bean bags or
recline in a hammock next to the water. Through large, floor-to-ceiling windows
you can see chefs fussing over their creations in the open patisserie.

Fresh, organic produce from
The Farm's onsite herb garden and nursery is harnessed daily for a sustainable
menu curated by chef Yves de Lafontaine. “Our flavours are inspired from around
the world, from Thai and Mediterranean to Middle Eastern, Indian and Asian. The
idea is to create pure and fresh dishes which also reflect Dubai's
multicultural ethos,“ says Lafontaine.

Another breakfast meal
takes me to the freshly-minted, sunlight-drenched Cocoa Kitchen. At this
cocoa-centric restaurant with chalkboard menus, each dish -sa voury or sweet
-comes accented with cocoa. The use of a simple mono ingredient makes it tough
for a conditioned mind (and palate) to accept that cocoa can indeed be a
wonderful starter, or a main course ingredient, and not just a dessert. But
this revelation is just the point at the eatery.

“We celebrate the
flavourful cacao nib and its successful fusion with a wide variety of
ingredients. Cacao nibs are versatile, so they can be used in savoury cooking
at any point in the recipes to lend their distinct flavour,“ the chef informs
me as I fork into a cocoa-infused breakfast. There's beef sausage, blackened
tomato, field mushroom, maplenibbed glazed turkey rashers, house beans and
poached eggs. A beautiful bread board offers cocoa butter as well as spreads
like pistachio, white chocolate hazelnut, milk chocolate almond and dark
chocolate, not one item overpowered by the taste of cocoa.

A Moveable Feast

Mobile kitchens or food
trucks -a recent addition to Dubai's dining scene -are where the city's budding
chefs are cooking up a storm kerbside. We drive down to The Last Exit Truck
Park, located on Jebel Ali, near the Abu Dhabi border to check out what the fuss
is all about. The area is a whirligig of activity on a nippy evening with a
dozen vintage airstream trailers servicing gaggles of families with gourmet
street food. The carnival-esque atmosphere is augmented further by children's
play zones and an air-conditioned seating area which recreates a classic car
workshop.

The Last Exit's
Americana-meets-MiddleEastern smorgasbord includes hotdogs, burgers, falafels,
bakes, cakes, Emirati delicacies, Turkish ice-cream and even `karak chai'. Each
truck is individually customised by big foodie brands like Clinton St Baking
Company, Poco Loco, Operation Falafel, The Hot Dog Stand, and Urban Seafood.
Customers order via each truck's intercom system, eat in their cars or head to
the al fresco seating. Most trucks use biodegradable packaging as well as other
carbon footprint-friendly kitchen practises.

“Basically, we offer
motorists and riders, commuting between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, additional dining
choices,“ Milly Mason informs me as I sink my teeth into a juicy hot dog
bursting with flavour. “The venue has both dine-in and drive-through formats
along with a mix of convenience facilities, car parking spaces, rest rooms and
ATMs.“

A Toast to the Coast

Dubai's sea-fronted hotels
and restaurants have always leveraged their beachside settings to optimal
effect. But increasingly, a new breed of restaurateurs are putting an inventive
spin to their food and settings. The recently-refurbished Shimmers, located
smack dab on the shores of the Arabian Gulf at Jumeirah Mina A'Salam Hotel, has
the feel and style of an authentic Greek Tavern.White washed woods, textiles in
turquoise shades and relaxed seating on the sand offer welcome respite from the
heat and hubbub of the city. There's a sheesha bar, should you feel so
inclined.

The eatery offers casual,
toes-in-thesand atmosphere during the day, and a relaxed dining setting at
night. We tuck in next to the lapping waves as a twinkling Burj Al Arab looms
over us. Inspired by his mother's recipes, Greek chef Yiannis Katsikas serves up
Mediterranean dishes but with his own twist. For starters, he sends us
delicious Tyrokaftrei, a traditional spicy feta cheese dip served with freshly
baked pita bread and zucchini kefta (kofta) with tender chargrilled octopus.
The slow roasted beetroot salad and the Greek salad pop with colours and taste.

Up next are the mains
-succulent lamb chops and briam -a flavour-charged Greek vegetable bake
straight from the oven. For dessert, there's “Bougatsa from Thessaloniki“, a
semolina custard with icing sugar and cinnamon. “Loukoumades“, the restaurant's
signature dessert, achieves perfect harmony between cinnamon, honey, walnuts
and vanilla ice cream. However, it's the light-as-air baklava that has our
taste buds singing.

Another salubrious
beachside experience is offered by Seven Sands restaurant where we eat while
gazing out to a glittering sea.Spread over two stylish floors at the
southern-most tip of The Beach in JB, the eatery has a glass-covered section on
the ground floor containing sand from each of the seven emirates (hence its
moniker). As you wait for your order to arrive, you can soak in the decor
accentuated by white walls depicting images of old Dubai: horses, falcons,
camels and the Bedouin life. Our table, however, is set on the terrace, with
the sea breeze and the distant clatter of beachside activity providing a
pleasing backdrop for the meal.

The food at Seven Sands
reinterprets traditional and contemporary Emirati cuisine.The appetizers
-squares of crispy bread with zaatar -followed by shark sambousa -samosas,
essentially, of tightly packed minced shark with spices elicit grunts of
approval at our table. The fried bezar prawns -wrapped in vermicelli and served
with a sweet chilli dip -disappear from the plates faster than we could say
`Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum'.

Mains comprise Lamb
thareed, a traditional Bedouin stew made with marrow, pumpkin, potatoes and
tomatoes), and fouga, an Emirati pilaf combining spices, basmati rice and
falling-off-the-bone meat. The dessert -toffee and bread pudding -is more
British than Bedouin. But it didn't last long enough in the bowls for us to
kvetch over its provenance.